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Another Q, since Keith said he was interested in mgmt/owner perspective
Background: I spent a couple of years doing fieldwork in two sites. One was
a subsidiary of AT&T. Manufacturing industry, not telecomm. They went
through some major downsizings. The 'survivors' were teed off, certain the
exec-level mgmt had made bad business decisions and axed 40k employees as a
result. In fact, I was actually approached by the father of a student who'd
heard about my other work on downsized professionals, engineers (not
software), upper-level mgmt, etc. He told me how angry everyone was and boy
did he think I would have a story to tell for them! He got me inside the
org and I compared the 'survivors' and the 'axed'. I did interviews and
worked with each week at a Career Transition Ctr where they learned how to
negotiate the "new rules"--from the worlds they all come from. <Lisa, See
William Bridges, _JobShift_ for the quick answer
http://www.webcom.com/quantera/llbridges.html>
Anyway, this is related to the other Q I asked (and thanks for responses,
btw): When I was doing my research, one thing that was said over and over
again, on both sides of the divide, was that people who are seeking jobs
should never discuss their former employers in a negative light. For
instance, if you got laid off, you shouldn't tell them at the interview
what idiots the execs at AT&T were, etc. No matter how true, it was a bad
idea. You simply had to resist the desire to explain what _really_ happened.
I'm curious about two things. 1. Is this still advice you hear today, in
IT? 2. If you've heard this advice (or maybe if you haven't) do folks know
(or want to speculate) as to _why_ that advice is considered sound?
Thanks,
Kelley
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